1. Field of the Invention
This invention belongs to a field of an information provision apparatus for providing various information, and particularly relates to a method for inhibiting unauthorized use of information in the information provision apparatus for providing information using information stored in a detachable information storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an information provision apparatus with a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) which is a detachable mass information storage medium and a hard disk drive (HDD) which is likewise mass information storing portion has actively been developed. For example, in a vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus, a home-use video recorder, a personal computer, etc., various apparatus with such a configuration have been developed.
In such an information provision apparatus, information previously stored in a commercially available DVD is protected by copyright in most cases, and a user who has bought the DVD duly (that is, has paid the information fees and copyright fees) is permitted to use the information stored in the DVD within the use restrictions.
However, there was a problem that the DVD is delivered from a duly authorized user to another user and thereby another user who has not bought the DVD duly (that is, has not paid the information fees and copyright fees) copies information stored in the DVD into an HDD illegally and a situation of unauthorized use is caused.
In such a background, various techniques are disclosed with respect to a method for inhibiting unauthorized use of information in the information provision apparatus for providing information using information stored in a detachable information storage medium.
For example, a navigation apparatus constructed so that illegally copied data cannot be used is disclosed (see JP-A-2003-216504). That is, the navigation apparatus has a first data recording part for setting a first recording medium, a second data recording part for setting a second recording medium, data decision processing portion for deciding whether or not data is present in the first recording medium, and data selection processing portion for selecting one of data of the first and second recording media when the data is present in the first recording medium and stopping selection of the data when the data is absent in the first recording medium, so that the illegally copied data cannot be used since selection of the data is stopped when the data is absent in the first recording medium.
Also, an illegal copy inhibition method constructed so that when a disk-shaped recording medium is loaded into an information processing apparatus, the type is identified and thereby when the disk-shaped recording medium loaded is a rewritable type, it is regarded as an error and processing is stopped to prevent an illegal copy is disclosed (see JP-A-6-302092). That is, the number of dent holes for identification is two in the case of a cartridge for rewritable type disk, so that a switch outputs two pulses. A counter counts the pulses outputted from the switch and outputs a count value 2. A disk type identification part decides that the loaded disk is a rewritable type disk from the output value of the counter. When a playback-only type disk cartridge is loaded, the switch only outputs one pulse and an output value of the counter becomes one, and the disk type identification part decides that the loaded disk is a playback-only type disk from the output value of the counter.
JP-A-2003-216504 and JP-A-6-302092 are referred to as related art.
However, in the conventional method as described in JP-A-2003-216504, there was a problem that a storage medium such as a DVD bought duly must always be attached to an apparatus and for a navigation apparatus etc., a DVD for map information cannot be replaced with a DVD for another information such as a movie.
Also, in the conventional method as described in JP-A-6-302092, there was a problem that it is difficult to identify a type of a storage medium such as a DVD which is not loaded in a cartridge.